This invention relates to a flooring for a poultry pen.
Poultry and particularly broilers are generally raised from chicks to slaughter in the same pen in a matter of weeks. The birds are generally kept in relatively high densities within a single pen which is merely of sufficient size to enable them to move about within the pen. During their life they spend much of their time resting on the floor with their breast directly in contact with the floor.
In most cases the floor is constituted simply by an earth or concrete base covered with straw or other suitable bedding materials on which the waste material or feces merely collects. As this type of floor provides great difficulty for the operatives removing the waste material and generally the floor is left untouched for the period of growth of a particular batch of birds and the material is removed only when the batch is fully grown and removed from the pen.
It is of course necessary for the operatives to move about on the floor at the same time as the birds are on the floor in order to carry out regular culling of dead or damaged birds, to repair feeding or watering equipment and in order to catch and crate the birds for transportation to slaughter.
The above use of the solid, straw or shavings covered floor allows the operatives to move about freely but can cause problems with infection and disease caused by the collection of the waste materials or flooding from watering system breakdowns. In addition the waste material retains a useful amount of feed material since it contains nutrients which could if collected be used in subsequent feeding to ruminant type livestock. However the fact that collection can take place only after the few weeks of the growth period prevents the material being used since this delay results in the development of botulism and other harmful bacteria which destroys the usefulness of the manure.
Another problem which arises is that medication is required in the feed, i.e., antibiotics, to help the bird cope with living on its own feces. These medicated feeds can result in (1) excess cost (2) contaminated meat and human allergic reaction.
Various designs of manufactured flooring have therefore been developed over the years to attempt to allow the collection of the waste material beneath the floor for removal and further use regularly without disturbing the flock above. Examples are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,371,495 (Stevenson et al), 4,430,960 (Nagel) and Canadian Pat. No. 1,188,578 (Nijhof). In many cases this type of flooring does not allow an operative to properly enter the area where the birds are kept so as to provide the necessary culling or catching of the birds. In some cases this is overcome by providing as the flooring a conveyor belt which will move toward one end at which the birds can be grasped or dead birds removed.
However this type of flooring in many cases has a severe disadvantage that is the birds tend to sit upon transverse wires or strips which support the floor and thus cause indentation in the breast resulting in crooked keel bones and in some cases unsightly breast blisters which are unacceptable in broilers and require the birds to be culled due to health standards and to be used only for soup. Little success has therefore been obtained in providing a flooring which overcomes all of these requirements and while many of the new designs of flooring have been tried, very little commercial success has been attained.